1965 Pontiac GTO - The Black Snowball

It's beyond cliché to refer to a car build-up as having a snowball effect, but in the case of Josiah Coy's '65 GTO, it's more than appropriate, as the car went from a nice driver with a few simple bolt-ons to a full-on Pro Touring-style build that consumed three years and an untold amount of money and sweat. And it got him invited to this year's HOT ROD Power Tour(r) Challenge.

2/9Nothing beats the lines of a '65 GTO

The storm started when Josiah went on Craigslist looking for a '65 Malibu SS. He wanted a nice driver that didn't need much work, but instead of a Malibu, he stumbled on this GTO late one night and sealed the deal the next morning. The car had a 455 and a TKO five-speed, Global West upper control arms, a 12-bolt that was making death noises, and a simple disc brake swap. After a couple of weeks, Josiah installed a Hotchkis TVS suspension, an aluminum radiator, and a few other easy bolt-ons and drove it that way until the 455 let go. "The TVS system worked so well, I would never see oil pressure on offramps. It would go from 50 to 5 psi," Josiah says.

After the car was towed home, Josiah yanked the engine to replace it with a newly rebuilt one. He scored a virgin 455 block and had Craig and Vong Dang at Top of the Hill in Livermore, California, build it with a stout bottom end, Edelbrock heads, a Demon Six Shooter three-deuce carb setup, and a Canton road race pan to solve the oil starvation problem. While the engine was going together, Josiah cleaned and painted the engine bay and underside of the car, and then it occurred to him that it might be a good idea to powdercoat the chassis. And while he was at it, he might as well strip and repaint the car. And you know what? Baer brakes would look good on that powdercoated chassis-and since the 12-bolt was howling, might as well go through that, too. See the snowball growing in size and speed?

3/9Clean, simple and comfortable define the interior.

Soon, Josiah realized, Holy s$@t, I'm in a full-blown restoration. I was never supposed to tear into this car! After he stripped it of its interior, trim, glass, and top, he sent it off "to a warehouse out in the ghetto of Oakland where I helped a bodyman on the car. We stripped it down to bare metal with DA sanders and, oh, God, was that time-consuming." They found about 2 inches of Bondo in the driver-side quarter-panel and home doorsills used as patch panels on the bottoms of both quarters.

About this time, Josiah learned about Schwartz Extreme Performance and its line of Pro touring-style full chassis and realized the GTO just had to have one. Schwartz set it up with a Winters aluminum 9-inch full-floater rear, Wilwood 13-inch brakes, and all the other Schwartz goodies that come with the company's chassis.

4/9Craig and Vong Dang at Top of the Hill built the 455 with a virgin '73 block, an Eagle crank and rods, forged SRP flat-top pistons, Clevite bearings, a Milodon windage tray, and a Canton road race pan. A Comp 250/256-duration hydraulic flat-tappet cam opens valves in the 72cc-chamber Edelbrock heads, and Demon provided the three-deuce intake setup.

With that course decided, just a simple strip-and-repaint, bolt-on rebuild would not suffice, so Josiah had Tavis Highlander come up with a rendering of the finished car.

The GTO was taken from the warehouse to Gordon Gordini of Gordini's Garage in Newark, California, for some extensive sheetmetal replacement, including a new trunk floor, a quarter-panel, a windshield channel, and the driver-side floor. Gordon also mini-tubbed the car to fit some fat meats. With the car mocked up with the engine, exhaust, and wheels and tires, Gordon blew it apart again for paint. The car was media-blasted and the frame was sent out for powdercoating. When it came back, the primered body was dropped in place and sent to Newark Collision and Custom Paint for four coats of House of Kolor black and five coats of PPG clear.

5/9Hidden underneath that beautiful black sheetmetal is a full Schwartz chassis, including these front coilovers.

Final assembly took place at Josiah's house with friend and now business partner Corey Perin. The car was barely finished when it was successfully displayed at the '09 SEMA show, and the drive from Northern California to Vegas nearly killed them. (According to Josiah, it involved "lots of Red Bull, 5-Hour Energy drink, and no water, as well as a near-death experience in Barstow.") Once the show was over and we had invited the car on the Power Tour(r) (and he accepted), Josiah and Corey decided to open their own hot rod shop, Coy and Perin Speed Industries in Altamont, California.

6/9The accessory drive on the GTO used the first production bracket set from March Performance for a Pontiac. The kit is stripped of all the powdercoating and brushed to perfection. Everything under the hood is either brushed or satin-finished, including the bolts, valve covers, alternator, and A/C pump.

Come out to this year's Power Tour(r), check out this car in person, and watch for more hot rides to leave the doors of Coy and Perin Speed Industries in the years to come.